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Finding a moment of mindfulness in a cup of tea can soothe the soul.
Everything from the ritual of correctly brewing a pot of the revered beverage to the aroma and the sensation of the liquid sliding down the throat invites the tea drinker to pause and consider the moment and feeling.
According to Chinese legend, tea was accidentally invented more than 4,700 years ago.
Today the tradition continues locally at The Cultured Cup, where co-owners Kyle Stewart and Phil Krampetz offer weekly tea tastings at their small shop on Omega Road, where Stewart and a small army of passionate tea connoisseurs share their knowledge as they lead participants in an exploration of the scents, flavors and mouthfeels of a variety of drinks made from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant.
“People are kinder and gentler when they drink tea,” Stewart said. “For a couple minutes, it gets you out of your head.”
Stewart’s love affair with tea began when someone brought it to a meeting of the international food club he started when he was a university student.
“What I love about tea is that it brings the world together in a way no other beverage does,” he said.
A former college professor in integrated arts and humanities who attended university on a music scholarship, Stewart said tea allows him to explore the globe. “I travel all over the world, kind of like a wine guy, except I’m looking for teas.”
The Cultured Cup offers more than 200 teas, and Stewart works with many restaurants to help them with their own tea tastings and pairings.
On Saturdays between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., the shop comes alive as people from all over Dallas-Fort Worth, the United States and from many different cultures learn about tea and more about what they like.
“The diversity here is wonderful,” he said.
Despite its Chinese beginnings and Britain’s historical dominance of the tea industry, the people of Turkey drink the most tea per capita, he said.
Stewart said the goal is always to educate and inspire. He said he wants people to come taste the teas and find the perfect one. The process is one of discovery with an understanding that people perceive flavors and scents differently.
“We never want to tell people what they should be tasting. We never want people to be shamed,” he said. “If we can’t find a tea that you like, we’re not doing our job.”
Tea has opened doors for Timothy Chako. As a high school student at Wakefield High School in Frisco, he needed to create product as a project for his independent study class in entrepreneurship. He interviewed Stewart and decided he wanted to create a chai blend, different from what was available in the United States.
Chako said he grew up in Singapore and Cambodia and found the chai in the United States to be too cinnamon-heavy.
“I knew what spice profile I wanted,” he said.
The project landed him a full-ride scholarship to the University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business as well as a position working with Stewart and Kremptz, hosting tea tastings and helping Stewart at the World Tea Expo in Las Vegas each year, where Stewart teaches Tea Primer – 101 Basics of Tea.
“Good teas have so many flavors,” he said.
Krampetz, who has known Stewart for 45 years, is the store’s coffee expert and said he often can help devoted coffee drinkers find a tea they like when for health reasons a doctor has recommended they reduce their coffee consumption. He said he knows enough to be dangerous.
“Going to a light tea like a Darjeeling isn’t going to cut it for them,” he said, because coffee has a different mouthfeel and strong flavor. “I’ll absolutely throw a little curve and have them try something different.”
For those who really want to try something different, The Cultured Cup offers two types of pu’er (also spelled pu-erh), which are fermented, and aged, teas.
Sheng pu’er is naturally aged 10 to 25 years, similar to cheese, and shu, which is aged quickly, generally two or three months, said David Parrish, a long-time customer of The Cultured Cup, who has been working there and teaching about teas for the last seven years.
Parrish said he grew up drinking “Texas ice tea and sweet tea,” but started drinking more traditional teas to improve his health.
He sat at the artisan table and introduced visitors to the different pu’ers. “To me, this one … it’s like you’re visiting the forest,” he said as he poured sheng pu’er from a small clay pot for two visitors to the shop. He noted that even the clay pot he brewed it in helps smooth the flavor of the tea.
He said tea has many different flavors without anything being added to them. “It’s all about the leaves they pick, the mountain it’s grown on,” as well as oxidation and compounds in them, which affects their types and flavors. There are six types of teas: white, yellow, green, oolong, black and pu’er.
He reminded his visitors to smell the scent of the tea before tasting it. “It gives you a reason to pause and consider what we’re tasting … pay attention to how it goes down your throat.”
“Part of the experience is making you pause,” he said later. “You can do this in the office if you get a small [tea] set.”
The Cultured Cup has won accolades, but one almost passed Stewart and Krampetz by without their knowing. They were featured in Food & Wine’s April 2024 beverage edition as one of the best tea shops in the United States. They found out this summer.
“We didn’t know we were in it until a customer said something,” Stewart said.
In addition to a wide selection of teas, The Cultured Cup also offers coffees, kettles, cups and other drinkware, chocolate and gourmet treats.
The Cultured Cup is located at 13731 Omega Rd. and is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Saturday Tea Tastings are 10:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.
